MINSK, 17 September (BelTA) – The memory of the heroes of the Great Patriotic War, who preserved the Polish nation and statehood, is simply being erased from history today, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said at the patriotic forum "This is OUR History!" to mark the Day of People's Unity in Minsk on 17 September, BelTA has learned.
"They should not speculate on the topic of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact. The collapse of the Interwar Poland was solely the job of Poland itself. When decisions were made to launch the Red Army liberation campaign, Poland no longer existed as a subject of international politics. Pay attention to that. They say that there was no Belarus, that the western lands are Poland, that they were occupied by the Red Army. They see our reunification as an occupation. But this entity, which disputes this fact, did not exist back then," Aleksandr Lukashenko said. “By 16 September 1939, Poland's gold reserves were sent to Romania, and on 17 September the Nazis were in Brest. Hitler's army stood at the door of Belarus."
Then the Red Army came to the aid of Western Belarusians and Ukrainians. "The majority of the population welcomed the Red Army soldiers as liberators, and perceived the reunification of the Belarusian lands as an act of historical justice," the president said. “This event halted Nazi Germany's insane blitzkrieg for two years. Moreover, it influenced the outcome of the Great Patriotic War. There would have been no reunification of the Belarusian lands, no unity of the Russian, Belarusian, Ukrainian and other peoples, if the border had still passed near Minsk then Moscow would not have held out."
"Here's another paradox of history. The Belarusians, in alliance with other Soviet peoples, not only prevailed, but also, having put aside previous grievances, liberated Poland from fascism in 1945. More than 600,000 Soviet soldiers (many of them were Belarusians) perished in Polish soil. Who on the other side of the Bug River remembers this today? How do they pay us back today? They pay us back with Pole's cards, Belsat's fake news, Kalinovsky's programs, political emigrant centers, bypols, bysols and other ideological sabotage programs. Add to the fact that on the territory of these states, especially in Ukraine (a convenient place) they are setting up armed units to overthrow the government in Belarus and to take us back to at least 1939. Today the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Wehrmacht soldiers and German satellites are simply erasing the memory of the heroes of the Great Patriotic War, who preserved the Polish nation and statehood, who saved the Baltic states and civilized Europe from fascism. You look at today's politicians in Europe and our neighbors: fathers and grandfathers served in the fascist troops. Today they are eager to come here: they need revenge," the Belarusian leader stressed.
